Keep It Local x Tacoma: How King's Dream Proved Government-Funded Business Consulting Could Work
In October 2022, the City of Tacoma's Community and Economic Development department put out a request for proposals: a Small Business Technical Assistance Grant, budgeted at up to $330,000, to help the city's small businesses recover from the economic disparities COVID-19 had deepened — particularly in Tacoma's underserved business districts. King's Dream Business Consulting won the contract. What followed, publicly branded Keep It Local x Tacoma and formally titled the Tacoma Business Revitalization Project, became a real test of whether hyper-local, culturally competent consulting could deliver where broader programs hadn't reached.
The City announced the award in its own press release, and the story was picked up by The Center Square, where Mayor Victoria Woodards said: “Small and micro businesses are vital to the overall health of our local business community, and we need to boost the complexity of technical assistance they get in these key areas that are going to be critical to their future success.”
The Contract
The engagement ran seven months, from February through August 2023, structured around two focus areas: $200,000 for one-on-one business and financial consulting plus a series of public workshops, and $70,000 for business and personal credit coaching, delivered alongside subcontractor Take Charge Credit Consulting. The City's own program manager, Dierdre Patterson, oversaw the contract on Tacoma's side — and at closeout, actually flagged that King's Dream had left nearly 12% of its contract balance uninvoiced. Jawan's answer was simple: “We used only what was needed and nothing more … Tacoma business owners took to the program at less of an expense than anticipated.” Fiscal Finesse Consulting, a Black woman-owned financial planning firm, also contributed hands-on cash-flow and revenue-modeling coaching for several program participants.
The Mission
The contract's language was explicit: this work was to align with the City's commitment to anti-racist policy, providing culturally competent technical assistance to the small and micro-businesses hit hardest by the pandemic. In practice, that meant free one-on-one consulting, personalized business growth plans, and six public workshops covering everything from cash flow management and tax implications of business structure to building business credit.
But the City's real target sat one layer deeper than the assistance itself: Tacoma wanted to diversify the applicant pool for its own Micro-loan program, qualifying more minority-owned businesses that traditional lenders' underwriting had locked out due to systemic barriers. That's not incidental to King's Dream's work — expanding capital access for disadvantaged businesses is core to the firm's own mission, and it's a large part of why governments and lenders choose to partner with King's Dream in the first place.
The Reach
By the time the program closed, 69 businesses had applied for direct consulting and another 27 attended workshops without applying — 96 Tacoma businesses touched in total, almost all of them the kind of business this contract was built for:
81.5% minority-owned
75.3% female-owned
41 of 85 businesses with addresses on file sat in areas the City's own Equity Index rates as low or very-low economic opportunity
Some of the Businesses We Worked With
Behind those numbers were real Tacoma businesses, many still open and serving the city today, including:
eTcTacoma — a Tacoma small business that completed a personalized growth plan through the program.
BlackMuse — a Tacoma virtual-reality coding education company running VR-based coding workshops for students, including a program with Tacoma MetroParks. Consultants Anthony Parnell and Tierra Bonds helped build five-year financial projections, a full business plan, and a leaner equipment-financing strategy that cut projected startup costs — plus credit coaching that helped the owners secure financing for classroom VR headsets.
Love By The Slice Baking & Catering Co. — a Tacoma bakery and catering business. King's Dream built out a revenue growth plan for the storefront and a marketing plan covering social media and web presence, including a push toward local business and food-influencer partnerships that helped drive a standout sales weekend around a Hilltop neighborhood street fair.
Trifecta Kickboxing + Personal Training — a Tacoma kickboxing and personal-training gym. King's Dream consultant Anthony Parnell built out a five-year revenue and expense model across the gym's core revenue lines, plus a staffing plan and a full business plan template, over a series of working sessions.
Empower Electric — a Tacoma, Black woman-owned electrical contracting business. Consultants Anthony Parnell and Tierra Bonds helped build a five-year financial model, a full business plan with an organizational chart and staffing plan, and a business credit profile — plus early research into EV charging infrastructure as a possible new revenue line.
Jasmine Iona Design — a Tacoma public-art design studio serving municipal and capital-campaign clients. Consultants Tierra Bonds and TDN Training and Consulting helped the owner navigate leasing a workshop studio space, structure 1099 tax paperwork for subcontractors, and build a business credit profile — timed to a soft opening over Labor Day weekend and a grand opening during Tacoma Arts Month.
Morganic Movement — a Tacoma body-based coaching and facilitation practice working to expand beyond one-on-one sessions into group facilitation and curriculum products. Consultant Anthony Parnell built out a five-year financial model, a full business plan with executive summary, and job descriptions for two planned hires to support that growth, plus groundwork toward pursuing loan or investor funding.
The Art of Crunch — a Tacoma bakery and wholesale dessert business supplying accounts across the Puget Sound. With Fiscal Finesse Consulting, the owner built out financial projections, a new pricing structure, and a revenue model, including plans around an upcoming anniversary celebration.
Onsight Physical Therapy — a Tacoma, Asian woman-owned physical therapy practice specializing in care for climbers and outdoor athletes. Consultant Tanya Rivera-Falcone helped build a more strategic marketing plan, including a refreshed social media content strategy and outreach campaign, plus a pricing and revenue analysis to inform session pricing.
The program closed with a public capstone: Small Business Saturday: Free Coaching & Networking, held September 16, 2023 at Edison Square in Tacoma. About 50 business owners turned out for a day of free, drop-in consulting, a panel on the state of neighborhood businesses in Tacoma, and a vendor market featuring ten local businesses, including eTcTacoma. The City of Tacoma's own economic development staff joined as speakers.
The Results
The clearest win wasn't revenue growth inside a seven-month window — it was access to capital. The numbers King's Dream reported back to the City:
96 referrals to the City of Tacoma's Micro-loan program — the contract's central objective, diversifying who the City's own loan program actually reaches — plus 6 referrals to outside funding
32 personalized business growth plans completed
An average 40-point increase in credit score among participants who completed credit coaching
Paid Facebook and Instagram advertising that reached Tacoma's business districts for less than proposed — efficient enough that the program grew an organic following on top of it
The real measure, though, was in what participants said afterward. In a post-program feedback survey, respondents rated their overall Keep it Local x Tacoma experience a perfect 5 out of 5. “We never dreamed of receiving the support we've been given! Glenn has transcended our expectations regarding what is possible,” one business owner wrote of consultant Glenn Gregory. Another, after a workshop on accounting fundamentals: “Yesterday's workshop was brilliant … one of the most helpful, useful workshops that I have attended in a very long time.” A third, on working one-on-one with consultant Tierra Bonds: “Tierra is absolutely amazing! I'm so grateful to have had this opportunity to work with her. I really appreciate all you have done for me.”
The Honest Parts
King's Dream's own final report to the City didn't just list wins. It named the friction points directly: a seven-month timeline that felt rushed for real financial and credit turnaround, a $21 credit-report fee that was a real barrier for some participants, and the predictable drop-off that comes with any free service competing for a small business owner's time against paying obligations. Revenue, honestly reported, mostly held steady rather than leaping — 61 of 67 tracked businesses stayed in the same $0–$100,000 band before and after the program, a realistic reflection of how long it actually takes a credit or financial turnaround to show up on a P&L.
That's by design, not a shortfall: revenue growth was never the contract's core KPI. The City's goal — and King's Dream's own mission — was expanding who qualifies for capital, not maximizing revenue in a seven-month window.
The Proof of Concept
King's Dream's final report to the City closed with a direct claim: “The Tacoma Business Revitalization Project fulfilled all the goals set out in the contract.” More than that, it was proof that a small, minority-owned consulting firm could take on a hyper-localized government contract — with real reporting requirements, real accountability to a city program manager, and a real underserved population to serve — and deliver results a traditional accelerator model might not have reached at all.
If your city, county, or public agency is looking for a partner who can do this kind of on-the-ground work with communities traditional programs overlook, talk to King's Dream about what a similar engagement could look like.
The Local Mogul is King's Dream Business Consulting's blog, covering the people and small businesses building our local economies.
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